AN ARTIST AND ROCKS STAR

Prize-winning environmental artist Tim Pugh’s work is often gone with the next tide... but can linger in the mind

- By RAPHAEL HENRY, PA REAL LIFE and STEVE BAGNALL

A North Wales environmental artist who creates temporary sculptures from driftwood, pebbles and discarded toys has revealed how his creations vanish like ‘magic dust’ when the tide comes in.

Tim Pugh, 59, from Flintshire, crafts his artworks on beaches and in woodlands using whatever materials he discovers each day, including old toys, miners’ tags and washed-up army parachutes.

He claimed the Adult Artistic prize at the World Rock Stacking Championships in 2019 and 2020, and recently secured second place in the Adult Finalist category at the European Stone Stacking Championships, reports PA.

The full-time environmental artist’s creations are intended to ‘leave a light touch on the land’ washing away without leaving any trace behind.

Among his most cherished pieces are colourful flowers crafted from mussel shells, delicately balanced stone towers, and sea creatures fashioned from discarded plastic.

“I like the transience of it - I think that’s the magical thing about it,’ Tim told PA Real Life. “There's a lot of people making stone stacks now, and a lot of people say they despoil the landscape. It’s not for me to antagonise people, but to show that my work really will fall down and totally disappear within a matter of days.”

Tim developed his passion for land art whilst studying at Edinburgh College of Art. His lecturers picked up on his interest in the environment and started taking him to nearby beaches to ‘look at the impact of waves on clay and things like that!

After graduating, he moved back to North Wales and started working in woods and parks as a land artist.

Tim explained: “I’m one of those people who said, ‘I'm going to be an artist and nothing else’ It’s an all-consuming thing, this art.”

He was supported by his grandmother Beatrix, a ‘staunch ally’ who encouraged him during the difficult early years of starting out as an artist.